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Judgment of Eve - May Sinclair · Little Lord Fauntleroy

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Speaker 1: Chapters four to seven of The Judgment of Eve by
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Speaker 1: May Sinclair. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Chapter four. No fowler spreads his snares in sight of
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Speaker 1: those innocent birds that perch on the tree of life
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Speaker 1: in Paradise. As Arthur's soul. It was a vain soul,
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Speaker 1: preened its wings before her. Aggie never inquired whether the
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Speaker 1: brilliance of its plumage was its own or merely common
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Speaker 1: to all feathered things in the pairing season. Young Arthur's
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Speaker 1: soul was like a lark singing in heaven, its delirious
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Speaker 1: nuptial hymn Aggie sat snug in her nest and marveled
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Speaker 1: at her mate, at the mounting of his wings, the
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Speaker 1: splendid and untiring ardors of his song. Nor was she
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Speaker 1: alarmed at his remarkable disappearance into the empyreum. Lost to
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Speaker 1: sight he might be, but she could count on his swift,
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Speaker 1: inevitable descent into the nest. The nest itself was the
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Speaker 1: most wonderful nest a bird ever sat in. The two
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Speaker 1: were so enthusiastic over everything that they delighted even in
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Speaker 1: that dreadful, creaking yellow villa its very vices entertained them.
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Speaker 1: When it creaked, they sat still and looked at each other,
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Speaker 1: waiting for it to do it again. No other house
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Speaker 1: ever possessed such ungovernable and mysterious spontaneities of sound. It was, sometimes,
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Speaker 1: they said, as if the villa were alive. And when
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Speaker 1: all the woodwork shrank and the winter winds streamed through
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Speaker 1: their sitting room, Aggie said nothing but put sand bags
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Speaker 1: in the window and covered them with art surge. Her
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Speaker 1: mother declared that she had never stayed in a more
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Speaker 1: inconvenient house, but Aggie wouldn't hear a word against it.
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Speaker 1: It was the house that Arthur had chosen. She was sorry,
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Speaker 1: she said, if her mother didn't like it. Missus Purcell
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Speaker 1: was sorry too, because she could not honestly say that
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Speaker 1: in the circumstances, she enjoyed a visit to Aggie and
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Speaker 1: her husband. They made her quite uncomfortable. The pair of them,
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Speaker 1: their ceaseless activities and enthusiasms bewildered her. She didn't care
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Speaker 1: a rap about lectures, and thought that they were mad
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Speaker 1: to go trapsing all the way to Hampstead to harangue
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Speaker 1: about things they could have discussed just as well. Now,
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Speaker 1: couldn't they at home? Aggie, she said, would become completely undomesticated.
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Speaker 1: Missus Purcell was never pressed to stay longer than a week.
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Speaker 1: They had no further need of her, those two sublime
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Speaker 1: young egoists fused by their fervors into one egoist sublimer. Still,
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Speaker 1: Missus Purcell was a sad hindrance to the intellectual life,
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Speaker 1: and they were glad when she was gone. Heavens how
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Speaker 1: they kept it up all through the winter evenings when
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Speaker 1: they were not going to lectures, they were reading Browning
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Speaker 1: aloud to each other. But did Aggie tire on that highway?
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Speaker 1: She kept it up for Arthur's sake? Did Arthur flag?
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Speaker 1: He kept it up for hers. Then in the spring
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Speaker 1: there came a time when Aggie couldn't go to lectures anymore.
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Speaker 1: Arthur went and brought her back the gist of them,
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Speaker 1: lest she should feel herself utterly cut off. The intellectual
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Speaker 1: life had even for him become something of a struggle.
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Speaker 1: But tired as he sometimes was, she made him go, sending,
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Speaker 1: as it were, her night into battle, because now she said,
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Speaker 1: we shall have to keep it up more than ever
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Speaker 1: for them. You know, Chapter five I saw a ship,
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Speaker 1: a sailing, a sailing on.
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Speaker 2: A see, and it was full of pretty pretty things
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Speaker 2: for baby and for me.
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Speaker 1: Aggie always sang that song the same way. When she
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Speaker 1: sang for baby, she gave the little baby a squeeze
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Speaker 1: that made him laugh. When she sang for me, she
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Speaker 1: gave Arthur a little look that made him smile. There
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Speaker 1: were raisins.
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Speaker 3: In the cabin, sugar kisses in the hold. Here the
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Speaker 3: baby was kissed crescendo, prestissimo, till he laughed more than ever.
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Speaker 1: And the sails were made of silver, and the masts
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Speaker 1: were made of gold. The captain was a duck, and
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Speaker 1: he cried quack quack, said Arthur. It was Daddy's part
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Speaker 1: in the great play, and it made the baby nearly
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Speaker 1: choke with laughter. Arthur was on the floor in a
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Speaker 1: posture of solemn adoration, somewhat out of keeping with his utterances. Oh, baby,
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Speaker 1: cried Aggie, What times will have when Daddy's ship comes home.
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Speaker 1: The intellectual life had lapsed, but only for a period,
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Speaker 1: Not for a moment could they contemplate its entire extinction.
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Speaker 1: It was to be resumed with imperishable energy. Later on.
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Speaker 1: They had pledged themselves to that. Meanwhile, they had got
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Speaker 1: beyond the stage when Aggie would call to her husband
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Speaker 1: a dozen times a day, Oh, Arthur, look, if you
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Speaker 1: poke him in the cheek like that, he'll smile. And
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Speaker 1: Arthur would poke him in the cheek very gently and say, why,
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Speaker 1: I never What a rum little beggar he is. He's
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Speaker 1: got some tremendous joke against us, you bet, And a
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Speaker 1: dialogue like this would follow. Oh, Arthur, look, look look
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Speaker 1: at his little feet. I say, do you think you
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Speaker 1: ought to squeeze him like that?
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Speaker 3: Oh?
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Speaker 1: He doesn't mind. He likes it, doesn't he My beauty,
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Speaker 1: my bird. He'll have blue eyes, Aggie, No, they change,
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Speaker 1: they always do. And his nose is just like yours.
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Speaker 1: I only wish I had his head of hair. It
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Speaker 1: was a terrible day for Arthur when the baby's head
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Speaker 1: of hair began to come off. Tillie told him it
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Speaker 1: always did that and it would grow again. To day,
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Speaker 1: they were celebrating the first birthday of the Little Sun.
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Speaker 1: At supper that night, a solemn thought came to Aggie, Oh, Arthur,
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Speaker 1: only think on Artie's birthday. They had been practicing calling
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Speaker 1: him Artie for the last fortnight he won't be a
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Speaker 1: baby anymore. Never mind, Artie's little sister will be having
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Speaker 1: her first birthday very soon after. Aggie blushed for pure
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Speaker 1: joy and smiled. She hadn't thought of that, But how
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Speaker 1: sad it would be for poor baby not to be
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Speaker 1: the baby anymore. Arthur gave an anxious glance at Aggie
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Speaker 1: in her evening blouse. His mind was not set so high,
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Speaker 1: but what he liked to see his pretty wife wearing
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Speaker 1: pretty gowns. And some of the money that was to
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Speaker 1: have gone to the buying of books had passed over
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Speaker 1: to the gay drapers of Camden Town and Holloway. You
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Speaker 1: know what it means, dear, We shall have to live
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Speaker 1: more carefully. Oh yes, of course I know that. Do
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Speaker 1: you mind? Mind? She didn't know what he was talking about,
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Speaker 1: but she gave a sad, foreboding glance at the well
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Speaker 1: appointed supper table, where coffee and mutton chops had succeeded koco.
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Speaker 1: For Arthur had had a rise of salary that year,
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Speaker 1: and if Aggie had a weakness, it was that she
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Speaker 1: loved to get him plenty of nice, nourishing things to eat.
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Speaker 1: We shan't be able to have quite so many nice
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Speaker 1: things for supper, shall you mind? Of course I shan't
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Speaker 1: do you take me for a pig, said Arthur Gaily.
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Speaker 1: He hadn't thought of it in that light, wasn't he
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Speaker 1: always saying that it was the immaterial that mattered. But
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Speaker 1: it had just come over him that pretty Aggie wouldn't
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Speaker 1: have so many pretty clothes to wear, because, of course,
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Speaker 1: whatever money they could save must go to the buying
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Speaker 1: of books and the maintenance of the intellectual life, for
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Speaker 1: the home atmosphere was to be part of the children's education.
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Speaker 1: We will have lots of nice things, said Aggie, won't
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Speaker 1: we when Daddy's ship comes home? Chapter six. Daddy's ship
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Speaker 1: never did come home. Quack quack, said Aggie, and three
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Speaker 1: shrill voices her. Aggie had to be the duck herself now,
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Speaker 1: or Daddy had long ago given up his part in
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Speaker 1: the spirited drama. They had been married six years, and
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Speaker 1: Aggie had had six children. There was Artie and Cattie,
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Speaker 1: and Willie and Dick and Emmy, the baby of the year,
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Speaker 1: and a memory like a sword in her mother's heart,
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Speaker 1: which was all that was left of little Barbara, who
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Speaker 1: had come after Caddy. It seemed as if there was
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Speaker 1: not much left of Aggie either. Her delicate individuality had
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Speaker 1: shown signs of perishing as the babies came, and the
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Speaker 1: faster it perished, the faster they took its place. At
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Speaker 1: each coming, there went some part of pretty Aggie's prettiness,
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Speaker 1: first the rose from her cheeks, then the gold from
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Speaker 1: her hair, till none of her radiance was left but
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Speaker 1: the blue light of her eyes, and that was fainter.
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Speaker 1: Then after Barbara's death, her strength went too, And now
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Speaker 1: at the end of the day she was too tired
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Speaker 1: to do anything but lie on the sofa and let
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Speaker 1: the children crawl all over her, moaning sometimes when they
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Speaker 1: trampled deep. Then Arthur would stir in his arm chair
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Speaker 1: and look irritably at her. He still loved Aggie and
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Speaker 1: the children, but not their noises. The evenings, once prolonged
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Speaker 1: by gaslight and enthusiasm to a glorious life, had shrank
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Speaker 1: to a two hours sitting after supper. They never went anywhere.
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Speaker 1: Now picture galleries and concert halls knew them no more.
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Speaker 1: The debating society at Hampstead had long ago missed the faithful,
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Speaker 1: inseparable pair, the pair who never spoke, who sat in
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Speaker 1: the background, listening with shy, earnest faces, with innocence that
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Speaker 1: yearned wide eyed after wisdom, while it followed with passionate subservience.
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Speaker 1: The inane Arthur had proved himself powerless to keep it up.
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Speaker 1: If an archangel's trump had announced a lecture for that evening,
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Speaker 1: it would not have roused him from his apathy. And
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Speaker 1: as they never went to see anybody, nobody ever came
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Speaker 1: to see them. The Hampstead ladies found Aggie dull and
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Speaker 1: her conversation monotonous. It was all about Arthur and the babies.
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Speaker 1: And those ladies cared little for Arthur and for the babies.
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Speaker 1: Less of Aggie's past enthusiasm, they said that it was
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Speaker 1: nothing but a pose. Time had revealed her the sunken
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Speaker 1: soul of patience and of Pathos, the beast of burden,
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Speaker 1: the sad, eyed, slow and gray. The spirit of the
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Speaker 1: place too had departed, leaving a decomposing and discolored shell.
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Speaker 1: The beloved yellow villa had disclosed the worst side of
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Speaker 1: its nature. The brown wallpaper had peeled and blistered like
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Speaker 1: an unwholesome skin. The art surge had faded, The drugget
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Speaker 1: was dropping to pieces. Worn with many feet. The woodwork
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Speaker 1: had shrunk more than ever, and drafts, keen as knives,
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Speaker 1: cut through the rooms and passages. The hope and the
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Speaker 1: love leading life, and the love triumphant, like imperishable frescoes
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Speaker 1: in a decaying sanctuary, were pitiful survivals, testifying to the
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Speaker 1: death of the dreams. Saddest of all, the bookshelves that
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Speaker 1: were to have shot up to the ceiling had remained
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Speaker 1: three feet from the floor, showing the abrupt arrest of
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Speaker 1: the intellectual life. It was evident that they hadn't kept
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Speaker 1: it up. If anything, Arthur was more effaced, more obliterated
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Speaker 1: than his wife. He whose appearance had once suggested a
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Speaker 1: remarkable personality, a poet or a thinker, now looked what
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Speaker 1: he had become, a depressed and harassed city clerk no more.
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Speaker 1: His face was dragged by deep, downward lines that accentuated
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Speaker 1: its weakness. A thin wisp of colorless mustache sheltered without
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Speaker 1: concealing the irritability of his mouth under his high, sallow forehead.
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Speaker 1: His eyes, once so spiritual, looked out on his surroundings
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Speaker 1: with more indifference than discontent. His soul fretted him no
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Speaker 1: longer It had passed beyond strenuousness to the peace of dullness.
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Speaker 1: Only the sounds made by his wife and children had
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Speaker 1: power to agitate him. He was agitated. Now that will do,
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Speaker 1: he said, looking up from the magazine he was trying
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Speaker 1: to read, not to be because it interested him in
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Speaker 1: the least, but because it helped to keep the noise out.
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Speaker 1: But the children were clamoring for an encore again again.
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Speaker 1: They cried, oh, mummy, do it again. Hush daddy's reading,
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Speaker 1: and Aggie drew the children closer to her and went
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Speaker 1: on with the rhyme in her sad weak whisper. If
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Speaker 1: you must read aloud to them, for goodness sake, speak
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Speaker 1: up and have done with it. I can't stand that whispering.
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Speaker 1: Aggie put down the picture book, and Artie seized one
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Speaker 1: half and Kattie the other, and they tugged till Caddie
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Speaker 1: let go and hit Artie, and Artie hit Caddy back,
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Speaker 1: and Caddy howled, can't you keep those children quiet, oh, Artie,
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Speaker 1: shame to hurt your little sister. At that, Artie howled
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Speaker 1: louder than Caddie. Arthur sat up in his chair. Leave
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Speaker 1: the room, sir, clear out this instant. His weak face
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Speaker 1: looked weaker in its inappropriate assumption of command. Do you
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Speaker 1: hear what I say? Sir? Artie stopped crying and steadied
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Speaker 1: his quivering infant mouth till it expressed his invincible determination.
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Speaker 1: I'll go for mommy, but I wo wo won't for Daddy.
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Speaker 1: I don't like him. Sh poor daddy, he's so tired.
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Speaker 1: Run away to the nursery, darlings, all of you. I
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Speaker 1: can't think why on earth you have them down here
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Speaker 1: at this time, said their father, as the door slammed
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Speaker 1: behind the last retreating child. My dear, you said yourself,
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Speaker 1: it's the only time you have for seeing them. I'm
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Speaker 1: sure you don't get much of them. I get a
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Speaker 1: great deal too much sometimes, if we only had a
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Speaker 1: bigger place for them to run about in. What's the
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Speaker 1: use of talking about things we haven't got and never
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Speaker 1: shall have. Is supper ready? She raised herself heavily from
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Speaker 1: her sofa and went to sea, trailing an old shawl
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Speaker 1: after her. Arthur, by way of being useful, put his
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Speaker 1: foot upon the shawl as it went by. After supper,
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Speaker 1: he felt decidedly better and was inclined to talk. I
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Speaker 1: met Davidson this morning in the city, he said. His
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Speaker 1: wife hasn't seen you for an age. Why don't you
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Speaker 1: go and look her up? Aggie was silent. You can't
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Speaker 1: expect her to be always running after you. I can't
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Speaker 1: run after her. I assure you. I haven't the strength
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Speaker 1: you used, he said, reproachfully to be strong enough. Aggie's
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Speaker 1: mouth twisted into a blanched, unhappy smile, a smile born
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Speaker 1: of wisdom and of patience and of pain. My dear,
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Speaker 1: you don't know what it is to have had six children.
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Speaker 1: Oh don't I I know enough not to want any
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Speaker 1: more of them. Well, then, said Aggie. But Arthur's eyes
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Speaker 1: evaded her imploring and pathetic gaze. He turned the subject
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Speaker 1: back to missus Davidson. A clumsy shift. Anyhow, it doesn't
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Speaker 1: take much strength to call on missus Davidson, doesn't It's
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Speaker 1: no good. I can't think of anything to say to her.
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Speaker 1: Oh come, she isn't difficult to get on with. No,
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Speaker 1: but I am. I don't know why it is. I
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Speaker 1: always feel so stupid now, That, said Arthur, is because
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Speaker 1: you hadn't kept it up. I haven't had the time,
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Speaker 1: she wailed time. Oh rubbish, you should make time. It
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Speaker 1: doesn't do to let things go like that. Think of
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Speaker 1: the children. It's because I'm always thinking of them. They
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Speaker 1: rose from their poor repast. Coffee and mutton chops had
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Speaker 1: vanished from the board, and another period of cocoa had
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Speaker 1: set in. He picked up her shawl that had dropped
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Speaker 1: again and placed it about her shoulders, and they dragged
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Speaker 1: themselves mournfully back in the sitting room. She took up
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Speaker 1: her place on the sofa. He dropped into the arm chair,
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Speaker 1: where he sat motionless, looking dully at the fire. His
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Speaker 1: wife watched him with her faded, tender eyes. Arthur, she said, suddenly,
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Speaker 1: it's the first meeting of the society to night. Did
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Speaker 1: you forget? They had never admitted to themselves or to
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Speaker 1: each other that they had given it up? Yes, said Arthur, peevishly,
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Speaker 1: Of course I forgot. How on earth did you expect
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Speaker 1: me to remember? I think you ought to go, dear sometimes.
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Speaker 1: You never went all last winter. I know. Isn't it
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Speaker 1: a pity not to try a little, just to keep
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Speaker 1: it up? If it's only for the children's sake, My
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Speaker 1: dear Aggie, it's for the children's sake and yours that
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Speaker 1: I fag My brain out as it is. When you've
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Speaker 1: been as hard at it as I've been all day,
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Speaker 1: you don't feel so very like turning out again, Not
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Speaker 1: for that sort of intellectual game. You say you feel
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Speaker 1: stupid in the afternoon. What do you suppose I feel
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Speaker 1: like in the evening? His accents cut Aggie to the heart. Oh,
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Speaker 1: my dear, I know I only thought it might do
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Speaker 1: you good sometimes to get a change, if it's only
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Speaker 1: from me and my stupidity. If there's one thing I
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Speaker 1: hate more than another, said Arthur, it is a change.
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Speaker 1: She knew it. That had been her consolation. Arthur was
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Speaker 1: not as the race of dreamers to which he once
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Speaker 1: seemed to have belonged. There was in him a dumb,
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Speaker 1: undying fidelity to the tried and chosen. From the first
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Speaker 1: before his apathy came on him, he had hardly ever
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Speaker 1: left her to an evening by herself. He had had
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Speaker 1: neither eyes, nor ears nor voice for any other woman.
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Speaker 1: And though her face had become the face of another
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Speaker 1: woman and he hated changes, she knew that it had
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Speaker 1: never changed for him. He loved her more than any
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Speaker 1: of the six children she had borne him, after all,
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Speaker 1: said Aggie, do you think it really matters, Do I think?
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Speaker 1: What matters? What we've lost? He looked suspiciously at her,
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Speaker 1: his heavy brain stirred by some foreboding of uncomfortable suggestion.
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Speaker 1: She had been thinking of Barbara. Perhaps I don't know
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Speaker 1: what you mean, he didn't. The flame in the woman's
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Speaker 1: heart was not wholly dead, because he had kindled it,
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Speaker 1: and it was one with her love of him. The
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Speaker 1: dream they had dreamt together had lived on for her,
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Speaker 1: first as an agony, then as a regret. But the
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Speaker 1: man had passed over into the sensual darkness that is
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Speaker 1: seldom pierced by pain. Of the pleasures that had once
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Speaker 1: borne him buoyant and triumphant on the crest of the wave.
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Speaker 1: None were left but such sad, earthly wreckage as life
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Speaker 1: flings up at the ebbing of the spiritual tide. They
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Speaker 1: had come to the dark shores, where, if the captain
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Speaker 1: wavers the ships of dream founder with all their freight,
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Speaker 1: a dull life was already kindling under his tired eyes.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what you feel like, said he, But
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Speaker 1: I've had enough sitting up for one night. Don't you
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Speaker 1: think you'd better go to bed? She went obediently. Chapter
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Speaker 1: seven a year past. It was winter again and the
26:26
Speaker 1: Gaddies had had sickness in their house. Aggie had been
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Speaker 1: ailing ever since the birth of the baby that had
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Speaker 1: succeeded Emmy, and one evening the doctor had to be
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Speaker 1: summoned for little Willie, who had croup. Willie, not four
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Speaker 1: years old, was the last baby, but three. Yes, he
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Speaker 1: was only a baby himself. Aggie realized it with anguish
26:54
Speaker 1: as she undressed him and he lay convulsed on her lap.
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Speaker 1: He was only a baby, and she had left him
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Speaker 1: to run about with Artie and Cattie as if he
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Speaker 1: were a big boy. She should have taken more care
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Speaker 1: of Willie. But the gods took care of Willie, and
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Speaker 1: he was better before the doctor could arrive, and Aggie
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Speaker 1: got all the credit of his cure. Aggie couldn't believe it.
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Speaker 1: She was convinced the doctor was keeping something from her.
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Speaker 1: He sat so long with Arthur in the dining room
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Speaker 1: she could hear their voices booming up the chimney as
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Speaker 1: she mended the fire in the nursery overhead. It was not,
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Speaker 1: she argued, as if he ever cared to talk to Arthur,
27:45
Speaker 1: Nobody ever cared to talk to Arthur long, nor did
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Speaker 1: he care to talk to anybody. So when the clock
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Speaker 1: struck seven, the doctor's dinner hour, and the dining room
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Speaker 1: door never opened, Aggie's anxiety became terror, and she stole downstairs.
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Speaker 1: She had meant to go boldly in and not stand
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Speaker 1: there listening, but she caught one emphatic word that arrested
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Speaker 1: her and held her there intent, afraid of her own terror.
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Speaker 1: Never she could hear Arthur's weak voice sharpened to a falsetto,
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Speaker 1: as if he too were terrified. No, never, never any more.
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Speaker 1: There was a note, almost a judgment, in the doctor's voice,
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Speaker 1: but Aggie could not hear that for the wild cry
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Speaker 1: that went up in her heart. Oh never, what is Willie,
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Speaker 1: My willy never to be well anymore? Then she listened
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Speaker 1: without a scruple, justified by her motherhood. They were keeping
28:57
Speaker 1: things from her as they had kept them, as they
29:01
Speaker 1: had kept them when little Barbara sickened. And if if
29:08
Speaker 1: Arthur's voice was weaker this time, it had a sort
29:12
Speaker 1: of moral powerlessness in it. But Aggie's straining ears caught
29:16
Speaker 1: the if there mustn't be any ifs Aggie's heart struggled
29:23
Speaker 1: in the clutches of her fright. That's not what I meant.
29:28
Speaker 1: I mean, is there any danger now? From what I
29:33
Speaker 1: could gather so far, I should say none. Aggie's heart
29:38
Speaker 1: gave a great bound of recovery. But if the doctor
29:43
Speaker 1: went on as you say, I know, cried Arthur, you
29:48
Speaker 1: needn't say it. You won't answer for the consequences. I
29:52
Speaker 1: won't for the consequences a woman in the weak state.
29:58
Speaker 1: Your wife is in may or herself with her life.
30:03
Speaker 1: Aggie was immensely relieved, so they were only talking about
30:08
Speaker 1: her all the time. That night, her husband told her
30:14
Speaker 1: that her release had come. It had been ordained that
30:18
Speaker 1: she was to rest for two years, and she was
30:22
Speaker 1: to have help. They must have a girl, Arthur, she
30:27
Speaker 1: said firmly, I won't have a girl. They're worse than charwomen.
30:33
Speaker 1: They eat more, and we can't afford it. We must
30:37
Speaker 1: afford it. And oh, another thing, have you ever thought
30:42
Speaker 1: of the children's education? Thought of it? She had thought
30:48
Speaker 1: of nothing else, lying awake at night, waiting for the
30:52
Speaker 1: baby's cry, sitting in the daytime stitching at the small
30:57
Speaker 1: garments that were always just too small. Of course, she
31:03
Speaker 1: said submissively, she was willing to yield the glory of
31:07
Speaker 1: the idea to him, Well, he said, I don't know
31:12
Speaker 1: how we're going to manage it. One thing I do know,
31:16
Speaker 1: there mustn't be any more of them. I can't afford it.
31:21
Speaker 1: He had said that before so often that Aggie had
31:25
Speaker 1: felt inclined to tell him that she couldn't afford it either.
31:30
Speaker 1: But to night she was silent, for he didn't know
31:35
Speaker 1: she knew, and she saw that he who did know,
31:40
Speaker 1: was trying to spare her. She blessed him in her heart.
31:45
Speaker 1: If he did not tell her everything that the doctor
31:48
Speaker 1: had said. He told her that Willie was all right.
31:53
Speaker 1: Willie had been declared to be a child of powerful health.
31:57
Speaker 1: They weren't to coddle him, as if any one had
32:02
Speaker 1: coddled him. Poor Aggie only wished she had the time.
32:07
Speaker 1: But now that her release had come, she would have
32:10
Speaker 1: time and strength too, for many things that she had
32:15
Speaker 1: had to leave undone. She would get nearer to her
32:19
Speaker 1: children and her husband too. Even at four o'clock in
32:24
Speaker 1: the morning, Aggie had joy in spite of her mortal weariness,
32:29
Speaker 1: as she rocked the sleepless baby on the sad breast
32:34
Speaker 1: that had never suckled him. She told the baby all
32:38
Speaker 1: about it, because she couldn't keep it in my beauty.
32:44
Speaker 1: She murmured, he will always be my baby. He shan't
32:49
Speaker 1: have any little brothers or sisters, never any more. There
32:55
Speaker 1: there did they sh my sweet pet mine lamb, my
33:00
Speaker 1: little king. He shall never be dethroned. Hush, hush, my treasure,
33:07
Speaker 1: or he'll wake his poor daddy. He will in another
33:12
Speaker 1: room on his sleepless pillow. The baby's father turned and
33:17
Speaker 1: groaned all the next day and the next. Aggie went
33:24
Speaker 1: about with a light step and with eyes that brightened
33:28
Speaker 1: like a bride's because of the spring of new love
33:33
Speaker 1: in her heart. It came over her now, how right
33:37
Speaker 1: Arthur had been, how she ought to have kept it up,
33:41
Speaker 1: and how fearfully she had let it go. Not only
33:46
Speaker 1: the lectures, what did they matter, but her reading her music, everything,
33:52
Speaker 1: all the little arts and refinements by which she had
33:56
Speaker 1: once captured Arthur's heart. Things she said that made all
34:02
Speaker 1: the difference. To Arthur, how forbearing and constant he had been.
34:08
Speaker 1: That evening she dressed her hair and put flowers on
34:12
Speaker 1: the supper table. Arthur opened his eyes at the unusual appearance,
34:18
Speaker 1: but said nothing. She could see that he was cross
34:22
Speaker 1: about something, something that had occurred in the office. Probably
34:27
Speaker 1: she had never grudged him his outbursts of irritability. It
34:32
Speaker 1: was his only dissipation. Aggie had always congratulated herself on
34:38
Speaker 1: being married to a good man. Coffee, the beloved luxury
34:44
Speaker 1: they had so long renounced, was served with that supper,
34:49
Speaker 1: but neither of them drank it. Arthur said he wasn't
34:53
Speaker 1: going to be kept awake two nights running, and after
34:57
Speaker 1: that Aggie's heart was too sore to eat or drink anything.
35:04
Speaker 1: He commented bitterly on the waist. He said, he wondered
35:08
Speaker 1: how on earth they were going to pay the doctor's
35:11
Speaker 1: bills at that rate. Aggie pondered. He had lain awake
35:17
Speaker 1: all night thinking of doctor's bills, had he, And yet
35:23
Speaker 1: that was just what they were to have no more
35:25
Speaker 1: of Anyhow, he had been kept awake, and of course
35:31
Speaker 1: that was enough to make him irritable. So Aggie thought
35:35
Speaker 1: she would soothe him to sleep. She remembered how he
35:39
Speaker 1: used to go to sleep sometimes in the evenings when
35:42
Speaker 1: she played, and the music, she reflected with her bitterness,
35:47
Speaker 1: would cost nothing but music. Good music costs more than anything,
35:56
Speaker 1: and Arthur was fastidious. Aggie's failings had grown stiff, and
36:02
Speaker 1: their touch had lost its tenderness of their old tricks.
36:07
Speaker 1: They remembered nothing except to stumble at a stretchy cord,
36:13
Speaker 1: a perfect bullfinch of a cord, bristling with accidentals, where
36:19
Speaker 1: in their youth they had been apt to shy. Arthur groaned,
36:24
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, there won't be a wink of sleep for
36:28
Speaker 1: either of us if you wake that brat again. What
36:32
Speaker 1: on earth possesses you to strum? But Aggie was bent
36:38
Speaker 1: just for the love of it, and for a little obstinacy.
36:42
Speaker 1: On conquering that cord. Oh stop it, he cried. Can't
36:48
Speaker 1: you find something better to do? Yes, said Aggie, trying
36:54
Speaker 1: to keep her mouth from working. Perhaps I could find something.
37:00
Speaker 1: Arthur looked up at her from under his eyebrows and
37:04
Speaker 1: was ashamed. She thought still of what she could do
37:08
Speaker 1: for him, and an inspiration came. He had always loved
37:13
Speaker 1: to listen to her reading. Her voice had not suffered
37:17
Speaker 1: as her fingers had, and there in its old place
37:21
Speaker 1: on the shelf was the browning he had given her.
37:26
Speaker 1: Would you like me to read to you? Yes, he said,
37:30
Speaker 1: if you're not too tired, He was touched by the
37:34
Speaker 1: face he had seen, and by her pathetic efforts. But oh,
37:39
Speaker 1: he thought, if she would only understand. She seated herself
37:45
Speaker 1: in the old place opposite him and read from where
37:48
Speaker 1: the book fell open of its own accord. Oh, lyric love,
37:54
Speaker 1: half angel and half bird. Her voice came, stammering, like
37:59
Speaker 1: a child, choked with tenderness and many memories, and all
38:05
Speaker 1: a wonder and a wild desire. Oh no, I say,
38:10
Speaker 1: for Heaven's sake, Aggie, not that rot you You used
38:16
Speaker 1: to like it, Oh, I dare say, years ago. I
38:20
Speaker 1: can't stand it now, can't stand it again? He was softened.
38:28
Speaker 1: Can't understand it, perhaps, my dear. But it comes to
38:31
Speaker 1: the same thing, yes, said Aggie. It comes to the
38:37
Speaker 1: same thing. And she read no more. For the first
38:42
Speaker 1: time for many years, she understood him. That night, as
38:48
Speaker 1: they parted, he did not draw her to him and
38:52
Speaker 1: kiss her, but he let her tired head lean towards
38:56
Speaker 1: him and stroked her hair. Her eyes were filled with tears.
39:02
Speaker 1: She laid her forehead on his shoulder. Poor Aggie, he said,
39:07
Speaker 1: poor little woman. She lifted her head. Suddenly, it's poor you,
39:14
Speaker 1: she whispered, Poor, poor dear end of chapter seven chapters
39:27
Speaker 1: eight and nine of the Judgment of Eve by Ma Sinclair.
39:34
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter eight.
39:42
Speaker 1: Now isn't it a pity for you to be going, Dearie,
39:46
Speaker 1: when the place is doing you so much good? And
39:49
Speaker 1: Susie back in another week and all, Aggie folded up
39:54
Speaker 1: a child's frock with great deliberation and pressed it gently.
39:59
Speaker 1: But for into the portmanteau I must go, she said gravely.
40:05
Speaker 1: Arthur wants me. Missus Purcell was looking on with unfeigned
40:11
Speaker 1: grief at her daughter's preparations for departure. Aggie had gone
40:16
Speaker 1: down to Quinningford not for a flying visit, but to
40:20
Speaker 1: spend the greater part of the autumn. She and Arthur
40:24
Speaker 1: had had to abandon some of the arrangements they had
40:27
Speaker 1: planned together, and though he had still insisted in general
40:33
Speaker 1: terms on Aggie's two years rest, the details had been
40:37
Speaker 1: left to her. Thus it happened that a year of
40:41
Speaker 1: the rest cure had hardly rolled by before Aggie had
40:46
Speaker 1: broken down in a way that had filled them both
40:49
Speaker 1: with the gravest anxieties for the future. For if she
40:54
Speaker 1: broke down when she was resting, what would she do
40:58
Speaker 1: when the two years were up and things had to
41:01
Speaker 1: be more or less as they were before. Aggie was
41:05
Speaker 1: so frightened this time that she was glad to be
41:08
Speaker 1: packed off to her mother with Willie and Dick and
41:13
Speaker 1: Emmy and the baby. The girls Kate and Eliza had
41:18
Speaker 1: looked after them while Aggie lay back in the warm
41:22
Speaker 1: lap of luxury and rested. For once in her life,
41:28
Speaker 1: all Aggie's visits had ended in the same way, the
41:32
Speaker 1: same letter from home, the same firm and simple statement,
41:37
Speaker 1: Arthur wants me. I must go, and Aggie was gone
41:42
Speaker 1: before they had had a look at her. John and
41:46
Speaker 1: Susy will be quite offended. I can't help it. Arthur
41:50
Speaker 1: comes before John and Susie and he wants me. She
41:55
Speaker 1: had always been proud of that, his wanting her, his
41:59
Speaker 1: in a ability to do without her. I don't know,
42:03
Speaker 1: she said, what he will have done without me? All
42:07
Speaker 1: this time. Her mother looked at her sharply, a look that,
42:13
Speaker 1: though outwardly he concentrated on Aggie, suggested much inward criticism
42:18
Speaker 1: of Aggie's husband. He must learn to do without you,
42:23
Speaker 1: she said severely. I'm not sure that I want him to,
42:28
Speaker 1: said Aggie. And smiled. Her mother submitted with a heavy heart.
42:35
Speaker 1: My dear, she whispered, if you had married John Hurst,
42:39
Speaker 1: we shouldn't have had to say good bye. I wouldn't
42:43
Speaker 1: have taken him from Susy for the world, said Aggie grimly.
42:49
Speaker 1: She knew that her mother had never liked poor Arthur.
42:53
Speaker 1: This knowledge prevented her from being sufficiently grateful to John
42:58
Speaker 1: for always leaving his trap, the trap that was once
43:02
Speaker 1: to have been hers at her disposal. It was waiting
43:07
Speaker 1: to take her to the station. Now Aggie had only
43:11
Speaker 1: seen her sister, missus John Hurst once since they had
43:15
Speaker 1: both married. Whenever Aggie was in Quenningford, John and Susy
43:21
Speaker 1: were in Switzerland on the honeymoon. That for this happy,
43:26
Speaker 1: prosperous couple renewed itself every year. This year, it was
43:32
Speaker 1: agreed that when the Hursts came up to Islington for
43:36
Speaker 1: the Grand Horse Show in the spring, they were to
43:40
Speaker 1: be put up at the Gaddies in Camden Town. Aggie
43:45
Speaker 1: was excited and a little alarmed at the prospect of
43:48
Speaker 1: this visit. Susy was accustomed to having everything very nice
43:54
Speaker 1: and comfortable about her, and she would be critical of
43:58
Speaker 1: the villa and its ways, and then it would be
44:02
Speaker 1: awkward seeing John. She smiled. It always had been awkward
44:08
Speaker 1: seeing John. But when the spring came, a new terror
44:13
Speaker 1: was added to Aggie's hospitable anxiety, a new embarrassment to
44:18
Speaker 1: the general awkwardness of seeing John. After all, the Hearsts
44:23
Speaker 1: put up at a hotel in town, but Susy was
44:27
Speaker 1: to come over for tea and a long talk with
44:30
Speaker 1: Aggie John following later. Aggie prepared with many tremors for
44:37
Speaker 1: the meeting with her sister. She made herself quite sick
44:41
Speaker 1: and faint in her long battling with her hair. She
44:45
Speaker 1: had so little time for doing it that it had
44:49
Speaker 1: become very difficult to do, and when it was done,
44:55
Speaker 1: she said to herself that it looked abominable. Her fingers
45:00
Speaker 1: shook as they strained at the hooks of the shabby
45:03
Speaker 1: gown that was her best. She had found somewhere a
45:08
Speaker 1: muslin scarf that knotted and twined with desperate ingenuity, produced
45:15
Speaker 1: something of the effect that she desired. Upstairs, in the nursery, Cattie,
45:22
Speaker 1: very wise for six years old, was minding the baby.
45:27
Speaker 1: While the little nervous maid got tea ready, Aggie sat
45:32
Speaker 1: in the drawing room, waiting for her sister. Even as
45:36
Speaker 1: she waited, she dared not be idle. There was an
45:40
Speaker 1: old coat of Arthur's that she had been lining, taking
45:44
Speaker 1: advantage of a change to milder weather. It was warmer
45:49
Speaker 1: than the one he was wearing, and she was afraid
45:52
Speaker 1: to let it go another day lest the wind should
45:55
Speaker 1: turn round to the northeast again. In such anxieties, Aggie
46:01
Speaker 1: moved and had her being for the rest. She had
46:06
Speaker 1: given the little maid a lesson in the proper way
46:09
Speaker 1: of showing Missus john Hurst into the room when she arrived.
46:15
Speaker 1: Missus john Hurst arrived a little late. She came in unannounced,
46:20
Speaker 1: for her appearance had taken the little maid's breath away.
46:25
Speaker 1: She came with a certain rustle and sweep, which was
46:29
Speaker 1: much more important than anything Susy had ever done in
46:33
Speaker 1: the old days when Aggie was the pretty one. Aggie
46:38
Speaker 1: was moved at seeing her. She uttered a cry of
46:42
Speaker 1: affection and delight, and gave herself to SUSY's open arms. Darling, said,
46:49
Speaker 1: Missus john Hurst, let me have a good look at you.
46:54
Speaker 1: She kissed her violently, held her at arm's length for
46:58
Speaker 1: a moment, and then kissed her again, very gently. In
47:03
Speaker 1: that moment, Aggie had looked at Susie and Susie at Aggie,
47:08
Speaker 1: each trying to master the meaning of the other's face.
47:13
Speaker 1: It was Susie who understood first. Prosperity was very becoming
47:18
Speaker 1: to Susie. She was the pretty one now and she
47:22
Speaker 1: knew it. Marriage had done for her what maidenhood had
47:27
Speaker 1: done for her sister, and Susie was the image of
47:31
Speaker 1: what Aggie used to be. But Aggie herself, nothing was
47:37
Speaker 1: left now of the diminutive distinction that had caused her
47:42
Speaker 1: to be once adored in Quenningsford. Susie was young at
47:47
Speaker 1: two and thirty, and Aggie, not three years older, was
47:52
Speaker 1: middle aged. Not that there were many wrinkles on Aggie's face,
47:58
Speaker 1: only a deep crest line on each side of a
48:02
Speaker 1: mouth that looked as if it had been strained tight
48:06
Speaker 1: with many tortures. It was as if nature had conceived
48:11
Speaker 1: a grudge against Aggie and strove through maternity to stamp
48:17
Speaker 1: out her features as an individual. Oh yes, said Aggie,
48:24
Speaker 1: to break the intolerable tension of the look. It's one
48:28
Speaker 1: of your old ones, turned and trimmed to make it
48:31
Speaker 1: look different. Poor Darling, said Susy, But what she thought
48:37
Speaker 1: was that it did look different. Luckily, missus john Hurst
48:43
Speaker 1: was full of the horse show. She could talk of
48:46
Speaker 1: nothing else. It was the horse show that had made
48:50
Speaker 1: her late. She had waited for the judging. John would
48:54
Speaker 1: look in as soon as he could get away. Gown
48:57
Speaker 1: Boy had carried off the gold up and the gold
49:01
Speaker 1: medal again, and the judges had been unjust as usual
49:06
Speaker 1: to John. John grown prosperous, had added horse breeding to
49:13
Speaker 1: sheep farming. Lad's love had only been highly commended. Lad's
49:19
Speaker 1: love was Rosemary's full. You remember Rosemary, Aggie. Aggie remembered
49:26
Speaker 1: neither Rosemary nor her full. But she was sorry for
49:31
Speaker 1: Lad's love. She was grateful to him too, for holding
49:35
Speaker 1: Susie's attention and diverting it from all the things she
49:39
Speaker 1: didn't want her to see. She was afraid of Susie,
49:44
Speaker 1: afraid of her sympathy, afraid of her saying something about Barbara.
49:51
Speaker 1: She couldn't speak of little Bessie, Susie's only child, who
49:55
Speaker 1: had died three years ago. Above all, she was afraid
50:00
Speaker 1: of SUSY's inquisitive tongue and searching eyes. She flung herself
50:06
Speaker 1: into fictitious reminiscences of the Queenningford stud She couldn't have
50:12
Speaker 1: done worse, Oh, Aggie, said her sister. You do mix
50:18
Speaker 1: them up so well, said poor Aggie. There are so
50:22
Speaker 1: many of them. I can't keep count. Never mind, dear
50:27
Speaker 1: Aggie's words recalled Susy to her sisterly duties. I haven't
50:33
Speaker 1: asked after the children yet. How many are there? I
50:37
Speaker 1: can't keep count either, you know. Aggie turned away, found
50:42
Speaker 1: the old coat she had been lining and spread it
50:45
Speaker 1: on her lap. Susie's eye roamed and rested on the coat,
50:51
Speaker 1: and Aggie's followed it. Do excuse my going on with this?
50:56
Speaker 1: Arthur wants it. Susie smiled in recognition of the familiar phrase.
51:03
Speaker 1: Ever since he had first appeared in Quenningford, Arthur had
51:07
Speaker 1: always been wanting something. But as she looked at the
51:12
Speaker 1: poor coat, she reflected on the one thing he had
51:16
Speaker 1: never wanted or had never asked for, and that was help. Aggie.
51:24
Speaker 1: She said, I do hope that if you ever want
51:27
Speaker 1: a little help, dear, you'll come to me. Susy, preoccupied
51:32
Speaker 1: with the idea of liberality, could not see that she
51:37
Speaker 1: had chosen her moment badly, her offer going as it did,
51:42
Speaker 1: hand in hand with her glance reflected upon Arthur. I
51:47
Speaker 1: don't want any help, thank you, said Aggie. Arthur's doing
51:51
Speaker 1: very well now, very well indeed, then said Susy. Why
51:57
Speaker 1: on earth do you break your back over that stitching
52:01
Speaker 1: if there's no need. That's not my notion of economy.
52:07
Speaker 1: Susie was a kind hearted woman, but eight years of
52:11
Speaker 1: solid comfort and prosperity had blunted her perceptions. Moreover, she
52:17
Speaker 1: had an earnestly practical mind, a mind for which material
52:22
Speaker 1: considerations outweighed every other. My dear Susy, your notion of
52:29
Speaker 1: economy would be the same as mine if you had
52:32
Speaker 1: had seven children. But I haven't, said Susy. Sadly. She
52:39
Speaker 1: was humbled by the rebuff she had just received. I
52:43
Speaker 1: only wish I had. Aggie looked up from her work
52:47
Speaker 1: with a remorseful tenderness in her eyes. She was sorry
52:52
Speaker 1: for poor Susy, who had lost her only one. But
52:57
Speaker 1: Susy had already regretted her momentary weakness, and her pride
53:02
Speaker 1: was up. She was a primitive woman and had always
53:06
Speaker 1: feared lest reproach should lie upon her. Among the mothers
53:11
Speaker 1: of many children. Besides, she had never forgotten that her
53:16
Speaker 1: John had loved Aggie first. Aggie, with her seven children,
53:22
Speaker 1: should not set her down as a woman slighted by
53:25
Speaker 1: her husband. I haven't had the strength for it, said she,
53:30
Speaker 1: and Aggie winced. The doctor told John, I mustn't have
53:35
Speaker 1: more than the one, and I haven't. Poor Aggie hardened
53:40
Speaker 1: her face before SUSY's eyes, for she felt that they
53:44
Speaker 1: were spying out and judging her, and Susy, seeing that
53:50
Speaker 1: set look, remembered how badly Aggie had once behaved to
53:54
Speaker 1: her John. Therefore, she was tempted to extol him, but
54:00
Speaker 1: then said she magnificently. I have my husband as if
54:07
Speaker 1: Aggie hadn't hers. Nobody knows what John is but me.
54:12
Speaker 1: Do you know? There hasn't been one unkind word passed
54:16
Speaker 1: between us, nor one cross look ever since he married
54:20
Speaker 1: me eight years ago. There are very few who can
54:25
Speaker 1: say that Aggie tried to throw a ring of robust
54:29
Speaker 1: congratulation into her flat homes. Very few. But there's no
54:34
Speaker 1: one like him, no one like you either. I should say,
54:39
Speaker 1: well for him, there isn't. He's never had eyes for
54:43
Speaker 1: any one but me. Never Aggie cast down her eyes
54:48
Speaker 1: demurely at that. She had no desire to hurt Susy
54:52
Speaker 1: by reminding her of the facts. But Susy, being sensitive
54:57
Speaker 1: on the subject, had provided for all that. Of course, Dear,
55:03
Speaker 1: I know just at first he thought of you a fancy.
55:07
Speaker 1: He told me all about it, and how you wouldn't
55:10
Speaker 1: have him, he said, He said he didn't think you
55:13
Speaker 1: thought him gentle enough. That shows how much you knew
55:18
Speaker 1: about him, My dear, I should always have supposed, said
55:23
Speaker 1: Aggie coldly, he would be gentle to anyone he cared for.
55:30
Speaker 1: She knew, and Susie knew she had supposed the very opposite.
55:36
Speaker 1: But she wished Susy to understand that John had been
55:39
Speaker 1: rejected with full realization of his virtues, because good as
55:45
Speaker 1: he was, somebody else was still better, so that there
55:50
Speaker 1: might be no suspicion of regret. Gentle, Why, Aggie, if
55:57
Speaker 1: that was what you wanted, he's as gentle as a woman. Gentler,
56:02
Speaker 1: there aren't many women, I can tell you who have
56:05
Speaker 1: the strength that goes with that. Aggie bent her head
56:10
Speaker 1: lower yet over her work. She thought she could see
56:14
Speaker 1: in Susie's speech a vindictive and critical intention. All the
56:20
Speaker 1: time she had Aggie thought been choosing her words judicially,
56:26
Speaker 1: so that each unnecessary eulogy of John should strike at
56:31
Speaker 1: some weak spot in poor Arthur. She felt that Susie
56:36
Speaker 1: was not above paying off her John's old scores by
56:41
Speaker 1: an oblique and cowardly blow at the man who had
56:45
Speaker 1: supplanted him. She wished that Susie would either leave off
56:50
Speaker 1: talking about John or go, But Susie still interpreted Aggie's
56:56
Speaker 1: looks as a challenge, and the hymn of prayer swelled
57:00
Speaker 1: on my dear, if John wasn't an angel of goodness
57:06
Speaker 1: and unselfishness. When I think how useless I am to him,
57:12
Speaker 1: and of all that he has done for me, and
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Speaker 1: all that he has given up, Aggie was trembling. She
57:20
Speaker 1: drew up the coat to shelter her. Why it makes
57:24
Speaker 1: my blood boil to think that any one should know
57:27
Speaker 1: him and not know what he is. Aggie dropped the
57:32
Speaker 1: coat in her agitation. As she stooped to pick it up,
57:37
Speaker 1: Susy put out an anxious arm to help her. Their
57:41
Speaker 1: eyes met, Oh, Aggie, dear, said Susy. It was all
57:47
Speaker 1: she could say, and her voice had in it consternation
57:52
Speaker 1: and reproach. But Aggie faced her well. She said steadily, oh, nothing.
58:02
Speaker 1: It was SUSY's turn for confusion. Only you said, and
58:07
Speaker 1: we thought, after what you'd been told? What was I told?
58:14
Speaker 1: Horror came over Susy and she lost her head. Weren't
58:19
Speaker 1: you told? Then? Her horror was reflected in her sister's eyes,
58:25
Speaker 1: but Aggie kept calm. Susy, she said, what do you
58:30
Speaker 1: mean that I wasn't told of the risk? Is that
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Speaker 1: what you mean, oh, Aggie? Susy was helpless. She could
58:41
Speaker 1: not say what she had meant, nor whether she had
58:44
Speaker 1: really meant it. Who should be told? If I wasn't,
58:49
Speaker 1: surely I was the proper person. Susy recovered herself. Of course, dear,
58:56
Speaker 1: of course you were well. Aggie forced the word again
59:01
Speaker 1: through her tight, strained lips. I'm not blaming you, Aggie, Dear,
59:07
Speaker 1: I know it isn't your fault. Whose is it? Then
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Speaker 1: SUSY's soft face hardened and she said nothing. Her silence
59:18
Speaker 1: lay between them, silence that had in it a throbbing
59:22
Speaker 1: heart of things, unutterable silence that was an accusation, a
59:29
Speaker 1: judgment of the man that Aggie loved. Then Aggie turned
59:35
Speaker 1: and in her immortal loyalty, She lied. I never told him,
59:42
Speaker 1: never told him. Oh, my dear, you were very wrong.
59:47
Speaker 1: Why should I? He was ill. It would have worried him.
59:50
Speaker 1: It worried me less to keep it to myself. But
59:55
Speaker 1: the risk, oh, said Aggie sublimely. We all, I'll take it.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: Some of us don't know. I did, That's all. She
1:00:05
Speaker 1: drew a deep breath of relief and satisfaction. For four months,
1:00:12
Speaker 1: ever since she had known that some such scene as
1:00:15
Speaker 1: this must come, she had known that she would meet
1:00:18
Speaker 1: it this way. Hush, she said, I think I hear
1:00:24
Speaker 1: the children Chapter nine. They came in a pathetic little procession,
1:00:34
Speaker 1: three golden haired couples holding one another's hands. First Artie
1:00:40
Speaker 1: and Emmy, then Kattie and Baby, then Willie and Dick,
1:00:46
Speaker 1: all solemn and shy. Baby turned his back on the
1:00:51
Speaker 1: strange aunt and burrowed into his mother's lap. They were
1:00:55
Speaker 1: all silent, but Dick. Dick wanted to know so if
1:01:00
Speaker 1: his Auntie liked birthdays, and if people gave things on
1:01:06
Speaker 1: her birthday, Pausing to simulate a delicate irrelevance before he
1:01:12
Speaker 1: announced that his birthday was tomorrow, Dicky dear, said his
1:01:19
Speaker 1: mother nervously, we don't talk about our birthdays before they've come.
1:01:25
Speaker 1: She could not bear, Susie to be able to say
1:01:27
Speaker 1: that one of her children had given so gross a hint.
1:01:32
Speaker 1: The children pressed round her, and her hands were soon
1:01:36
Speaker 1: at their proud and anxious work, coaxing stray curls into
1:01:41
Speaker 1: their place, proving the strength of the little arms, slipping
1:01:45
Speaker 1: a sock to show the marbled rows of the round limbs.
1:01:51
Speaker 1: Just feel and me's legs. She's as firm as firm.
1:01:55
Speaker 1: And look at baby, how beautifully he's made. They're all healthy.
1:02:00
Speaker 1: There isn't an unsweet, unsound spot in one of them. No, No,
1:02:07
Speaker 1: they look at they're magnificent, and they're you all over again.
1:02:13
Speaker 1: Barbara wasn't She was the very image of her father.
1:02:18
Speaker 1: Her love of him conquered the stubborn silence of her grief,
1:02:23
Speaker 1: so that she did not shrink from the beloved name. Susie.
1:02:28
Speaker 1: She said, when the little procession had, at its own petition,
1:02:33
Speaker 1: filed solemnly out again. You can't say that you've seen
1:02:38
Speaker 1: too much of them, Susie smiled sadly as she looked
1:02:43
Speaker 1: at the wreck that was poor Aggie. No, my dear,
1:02:48
Speaker 1: but I haven't seen quite enough of you. There isn't
1:02:52
Speaker 1: much left of you, you know me, She paused, and
1:02:57
Speaker 1: then broke out again, triumphant in her justification. No matter,
1:03:03
Speaker 1: if there's nothing left of me, they're alive. She raised
1:03:08
Speaker 1: her head. Worn out and broken down, she might be,
1:03:13
Speaker 1: but she was the mother of superb children. Something stronger
1:03:18
Speaker 1: and more beautiful than her lost youth flamed in her
1:03:23
Speaker 1: as she vindicated her motherhood. She struck even Susie's dull
1:03:28
Speaker 1: imagination as wonderful. Half an hour later, Aggie bent her
1:03:35
Speaker 1: aching back again over her work. She had turned a
1:03:39
Speaker 1: stiff set face to Susy as she parted from her.
1:03:44
Speaker 1: John had come and gone, and it had not been
1:03:47
Speaker 1: awkward in the least. He was kind and courteous. Time
1:03:53
Speaker 1: and prosperity had improved him. But he had, as Susy said,
1:04:00
Speaker 1: no eyes for any one but his wife. As Aggie worked,
1:04:05
Speaker 1: she was assailed by many thoughts and many memories. Out
1:04:10
Speaker 1: of the past. There rose a sublime and patient face.
1:04:15
Speaker 1: It smiled at her above a butchery of little lambs. Yes,
1:04:21
Speaker 1: Susy was right about her John. There was no weak
1:04:25
Speaker 1: spot in him. He had not a great intellect, but
1:04:30
Speaker 1: he had a great heart and a great will. Aggie
1:04:34
Speaker 1: remembered how, once in her thoughtful maiden days, she had
1:04:40
Speaker 1: read in one of the Vicar's books a saying which
1:04:43
Speaker 1: had struck her at the time, for the Vicar had
1:04:47
Speaker 1: underlined it twice. If there is aught spiritual in man,
1:04:53
Speaker 1: it is the will. She had not thought of John
1:04:58
Speaker 1: as a very spiritual person. She had dimly divined in
1:05:02
Speaker 1: him the possibility of strong passions, such passions as make
1:05:08
Speaker 1: shipwreck of men's lives. And here was Arthur. He, poor dear,
1:05:15
Speaker 1: would never be shipwrecked, for he hadn't one strong passion
1:05:19
Speaker 1: in him. He had only a few weak, little impulses,
1:05:25
Speaker 1: incessantly frustrating, a will weaker than them all. She remembered
1:05:31
Speaker 1: how her little undeveloped soul, with its flutterings and strugglings,
1:05:37
Speaker 1: after the immaterial had been repelled by the large presence
1:05:43
Speaker 1: of the natural man, it had been afraid to trust
1:05:48
Speaker 1: itself to his strength, lest its wings should suffer for it.
1:05:54
Speaker 1: It had not been afraid to trust itself to Arthur,
1:05:58
Speaker 1: and his weakness had made it a wingless thing. Dragged
1:06:03
Speaker 1: down by the suffering of her body. She said to herself,
1:06:10
Speaker 1: if I had known John was like that. She stopped
1:06:15
Speaker 1: her brain before it could answer for her. You wouldn't
1:06:19
Speaker 1: be sitting here now stitching at that coat. She stitched
1:06:24
Speaker 1: on till she could see to stitch no more, for
1:06:28
Speaker 1: tears came and blinded her eyes, and fell upon the
1:06:33
Speaker 1: coat that was just after she had kissed it. End
1:06:41
Speaker 1: of Chapter nine